RAILS 



(208) Rallus elegans Audubon 

 (Lat., a rail; elegant). 



KING RAIL. The largest o£ 

 our true rails. Plumage as shown; 

 richly colored on the breast with 

 bright rufous, on the wing coverts 

 with chestnut, and sharply marked 

 on the back with brownish-black 

 and tawny-olive; flanks and linings 

 of wings blackish, broadly barred 

 with white. Downy young glossy 

 black. L., 17.00; W., 6.50; Tar., 

 2.30; B., 2.40. Nest — Of grasses, 

 on the ground in fresh water marshes; 

 seven to twelve buffy-white eggs, 

 specked with reddish-brown, 1.60 x 

 1.20. 



Range — Breeds from Conn., Ont. 

 and southern Minn, southward. Win- 

 ters in southern United States. Casual 

 north to Maine. 



through the most extraordinary antics — bowing, leaping, 

 and pirouetting about in a manner most ridiculous. 



The Family ARAMIDiE consists of but two species, of 

 which our LIMPKIN, or COURLAN, is one. These gigan- 

 tic semi-rails are most peculiar birds, with a weak, mincing, 

 limping gait that gives good reason for their common name. 

 They frequent large marshes, moving aljout and feeding 

 almost wholly at night. They have loud voices, said to 

 resemble the cry of a child in distress, from which they are 

 sometimes called "Crying-birds." Such a combination of 

 voice, weak legs, weaker wings and odd appearance we might 

 reasonably expect to find only as a caricature; yet it is a 

 species not uncommon in Florida marshes and sometimes 

 strays along the Atlantic coast as far as South Carolina. 



Famly RALLIDyE. Rails, Gallinules, Coots, etc. 



A large family, comprising many species of marsh-inhabit- 

 ing birds of rather slender build, but with long, strong legs 



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